Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday deputed six IAS officers to visit and review the procurement operations at the mandis and asked for a detailed report by 30 April. These officials will visit the mandis allocated to them in various districts for on-ground assessment of the ongoing rabi season’s market and look into issues of procurement, checking the implementation of the curfew system, and arrival of wheat. They will also be tasked with the inspecting the quality of wheat and a complete adherence to Covid-19 protocol.
The MD of Punjab State Warehousing Corporation, Nilkanth S. Avhad has been deputed to oversee the wheat procurement operations in Ropar & SBS Nagar districts, MD MARKFED Varun Roojam (Amritsar & Tarantaran), Director Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Anindita Mitra (SAS Nagar), Secretary Mandi Board Ravi Bhagat (SBS Nagar, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar), MD PUNSUP Rambir (Jalandhar & Kapurthala) and MD PAFC Manjit Brar (Gurdaspur & Pathankot). All these officers have also been instructed to ensure implementation of protocol and adherence to the guidelines already given to the deputy commissioners regarding procurement and lifting of wheat within the stipulated time-frame.
Meanwhile, additional chief secretary development, Viswajeet Khanna said that out of 49.36 LMT of wheat that had so far arrived in various mandis across the state, 47.33 LMT had already been procured, as compared with 41.92 LMT procured of the 46.70 LMT that had arrived in the commensurate period last year. Khanna further said that all the officials/officers deputed for procurement operations had been directed to meticulously follow health protocols, including social distancing, to check the spread of coronavirus at the mandis.